shipmodel

Hi to everyone who is following this log, and thanks for your interest.
 
Druxey - I believe in catch and release.  She will come back, I'm sure.
 
Now that the hull structure was fully shaped, smoothed and primed, I turned to the main wales.  French practice, as derived from some of the contemporary models, was to have two strakes of dark, heavy planks run the length of the ship, separated by a strake of slightly thinner planking that was not as dark.
 
I selected cherry for the outer strakes and birch for the inner one, to match the woods used on the rest of the model.  The upper cherry strake was laid in sections along the line of the hull paint and glued down.  It will be pinned for security later.  A good deal of care was taken with this first strake as every following strake takes its curve from this one. 
 
Once I was happy with the first wale strake, the middle strake of birch was laid against it, then the lower strake of cherry.  Because of the curvature of the hull, the edges of the planks all had to be undercut so they could lay tightly against each other. 
 

 
The curvature of the hull also made clamping difficult.  The lower strake is substantially under the curve, especially at the bow and stern.  Since the bulwarks do not go down to the level of the wales, I could not get any direct clamping access.  I came up with a system of cantilevered scraps of wood to do the job.  Here at the bow the problem was not that acute, and you can see how the force from the spring clamp is exerted between the upper fulcrum and the load at the lower edge, even though it is around the curve.  It’s crude, but it worked.
 

 
At the stern the more extreme curve required raising the fulcrum and, at the aft end, even adding an angled caul to hold down the wood.
 

 
Each section of the wale was joined to its neighbor with a long scarf joint.  These were all marked out with a pattern cut into a plastic strip so they were consistent, cut on the band saw, and cleaned up by hand.  The forward end of the middle strake was as thick as the outer strakes, probably to reduce the chance of the anchor fluke catching an edge, much like the billboard did in later ships.  It was finished off with a decorative scallop, a detail again taken from another contemporary model.
 

 
Now that the wales had been set, the planking began.  I used birch veneer with a thickness of 0.025” – about ¾” in scale.  This had some good attributes, but required some new techniques.  Doing it this way owes more to the art of marquetry than the engineering of a ship.  The thinness of the planks means that they can be cut easily from a veneer sheet with the Preac using a fine toothed blade, and even shaped with scissors.  But they are somewhat delicate until they are glued to the hull.
 
They are also quite prone to warping if they come in contact with any moisture, including water based glues.  So to secure the planks I used contact cement.  I had used it before for the copper plates on models of later ships, but never on wood.  First I had to clear its use with the museum.  I found a study online from the Minnesota Historical Society which approved its use in conservation applications, so I was given the go-ahead.   
 
I thinned the glue with mineral spirits and painted a coat onto the hull and the backs of the planks.  When it was dry I colored the edges of the planks with an indelible marker.  The hull got a second coat of glue.  You can see it as the shiny area above the planking on the primed hull and the yellowish area below the wales.  When this second coat was almost dry, the plank was seated in place.  This gave me just a little wiggle room to adjust the fit of the plank yet still gave lots of adhesion.
 

 
Once the concept had been proved out, I planked the stern and counter so that the hull planks could run past their ends before being trimmed to fit. 
 

 
Below the wales the planking was carried down about an inch below the final location of the waterline.  The ends of the planks will be feathered into the solid hull and covered by the “white stuff” of the lower hull.
 

 
At the bow the planks do not all run into the stem, as in English practice.  Following the lead of Budriot, Petrejuus, and Frolich, the last five planks have hook scarfs and run up to the lower edge of the lower wale.   
 

 
Once these shapes had been resolved for the port side by trial and lots of error, I transferred the shapes to the starboard side.  A piece of translucent tape was laid over the planks and the outline of each plank was drawn on it.  Here I am doing plank #2.
 

 
Once the shape was drawn, the tape was removed and laid on a sheet of veneer.  This was done for all five planks.  It did not matter that the tape overlapped since all the tape would ultimately be removed.  I packed them against each other so there would be little wasted wood.
 

 
They were cut out with a new blade in the knife and fit together quite well.
 

 
With a little fine tuning they laid quite well against the starboard hull and match the lines of the port side planks.
 

 
The planks were continued up the hull, cutting out the openings for the gunports as I went. 
 

 
Just above the gunports is the line for the channel wale.  This is a wide and thick molding made from 1/16” thick cherry.  There also needs to be a lot of thinner decorative molding.  The moldings were made in the usual way.  I ground the profiles into a used hobby blade with a thin cutoff wheel in the Dremel.  Others use old hacksaw blades for this, but I have a lot of old knife blades and it lets me use a handle, which is easier to hold and helps with my trigger finger issues.  
 

 
After the profile was scraped into the stock the pieces were stained and set aside.  At the bow there is a significant curvature, so the sections of the moldings were soaked in hot water for about an hour then clamped to a handy form – a roll of masking tape.  When dry there was some springback, which left the piece matching the shape of the hull.
 

 
The curved pieces were soaked again briefly to soften them, then attached with neutral pH white glue and lots of clamps.   These clamps are some of my favorites.  They are plastic coated and have a firm but not hard grip, so they do not mark up the wood.  I used to find them in the paper clip section at Staples, but they have all but disappeared.  I found the last set in the kitchen section at Target, marketed as chip bag clips.
 

 
So here is the port side of the hull fully planked, but before establishing the waterline or installing all the treenails and metal spike fastenings for the planks.
 

 
The plans indicated a ¾” drop at the keel from the gripe at the bow to the sternpost.  The model was blocked and leveled and the waterline penciled in with a height gauge in the usual manner.  Below it the planks were feathered, filled, sanded, hardened, sanded some more, etc., etc., until they disappeared into the surface of the hull.  The line was masked with tape and several coats of off-white enamel sprayed on.
 
At this point the museum decided that the wales and moldings up to the channel wale should be painted black and the planking, but not the moldings, above the channel wale should be French blue.  This meant some tricky edge painting, and it covered up all the work I had done on the scarf joints in the wales.  Oh well . . . The silver lining was that I did not have to show plank fastenings under the paint, although the thinner moldings were pinned for security and strength. 
 
Here is how it looks today, with a paper pattern for the future quarter badge.
 

 

 
More soon.
 
Dan
 
 
 
 

Hi all.  Thanks for the likes and the compliments.  They helped me weather the weather this snowy winter.
 
The last time I showed the hull was at the end of January, and it looked like this.
 

 
Here is how it looked five weeks later, including getting snowed in for a week with the model in the shipyard.  This is how it got there.
 

 
After the bulwark pieces were cut, fitted and bent to shape, they were left to dry completely, then removed from the hull so the deck structure could be addressed.  After carefully levelling and squaring the building board and the model on it, the level was placed across the deck.   The symmetry and camber of the deck was read under the straight lower edge of the level.
 

 
To insure that the readings were accurate I drew the centerline and a series of perpendicular lines athwartships.  The level was placed on each line and high spots were identified then sanded down.  Using the lines and the edges of the basswood lifts as guides, the deck surface was smoothed and given the proper camber and sheer.
 

 
Now I prepared the model for its ultimate mounting.  It was flipped over and I drilled two ¾” holes into the centerline and about 2 inches deep, spaced well apart.  Into them I glued 1 inch long pieces of dowel that had been drilled out to accept 3/16” T-nuts on their upper end.  They were mounted so they came just proud of the surface of the hull.  Once the glue was dry they were sanded flush. 
 
The stem, keel and sternpost were cut and fitted.  They are 3/8” maple and secured with bamboo pegs into the hull.  No attempt to make scarf joints was made since the lower hull below the waterline will be shown with a coating of “white stuff” as teredo protection. Matching holes were drilled in the keel to allow 3/16” bolts or threaded rod to screw into the T-nuts to hold the model down to its ultimate cradle. 
 
Unfortunately I did not pause to record this work.  I was distracted by a very pretty assistant, a friend of my granddaughters, who showed some real interest in what I was doing.  To her I am Poppy Dan the Boat Man.  She was that third hand that comes in so handy from time to time.  Maybe she will keep at it.
 

 
She has just helped me install the aft bulwark pieces into their final homes.  They are glued into the rabbets in the lower hull and pinned with bamboo dowels.   Temporary internal supports are screwed to the deck to maintain the 13 degree tumblehome.
 
Next I turned to the gunports.  On my gun station practice piece I cut out the opening cleanly on the band saw.  This was impossible with the bulwarks, so the openings were roughed out with a zip-bit in a Dremel.  It made quick work of cutting the openings, but was prone to wandering, especially when it crossed one of the slots for the kerf bending of the bulwarks.  These  were squared up with a rasp and various files.
 
Unfortunately, my skills were not adequate to squaring and locating the openings precisely, nor smoothing them well enough to fit the inner lining tube.  I reasoned that if the lining tube would give me a square opening, then a larger tube would give me a square frame for the lining.  I put together a tube for the frames from 1/8” basswood which was sized so the lining tube slid neatly inside it.
 

 
Now a larger opening could be cut in the bulwarks and the frame located inside it.  The frame could be adjusted within the opening with shims before being glued in place. The inner lining tube was slipped through to insure that the frame was set vertically and at the correct height.
 

 
All of the port side gunports were done in this way.  The lining tube was used again for the starboard ports to make sure that they matched the port side in location and height.
 

 
Not only were the ports matched using the lining tube, but with the cannon that will ultimately be installed through them.
 

 
At the forward end of the bulwark pieces a slot was cut up its edge before it was installed.  A matching slot was cut in the aft edge of the forward bulwark pieces and a hardwood spline inserted across the joint to align the pieces and prevent future movement under the planking. 
 

 

 
The forward pieces were installed and pinned in place, the spline glued between the pieces.  The two forward gunport frames were cut, dressed and installed as before.  At the stern the transom piece was installed and blocks for the counter were cut, installed, and smoothed, ready to be covered by planking.
 
The upper two inches of the bulwarks all around were sanded to narrow the top edge to scale 9” and a hollow was sanded into the exterior of the aft bulwark at about the level of the gunports.  The effect is subtle, but the combination of the two operations created the shallow “S” curve and tapered top timber shape seen in the plans.
 
The entire exterior of the hull was filled with Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty as were the kerf slots on the inside of the bulwarks in all areas that will be visible in the finished model.  Several rounds of sanding, filling, and more sanding were necessary to get the lower hull to a proper smoothness. 
 

 
When it was done the filled areas were hardened with Minwax Wood Hardener for strength and longevity.  When it was dry there was a final sanding and a first priming.  This revealed some more spots that needed to be filled, sanded and hardened.  After a few more rounds the hull was given a final priming ready for painting.
 

 
Looking at the plans it is clear that the lines of planking all take their curves from the line of the main wale.  I decided to define this with the top edge of the hull paint as a test of the location and sweep of the curve.  It was plotted from the plans and masked off above the line.  Several coats of off-white enamel were sprayed on, giving the lower hull a hard finish that will support the final color coats.   The demarcation line for the wale looked good .
 

 

 

 
Finally, the fun of planking and detailing the hull can begin.
 
Dan

Hi Michael -
 
Yes, another good idea.  I will play with them all the next time around. 
 
Moving ahead, I have been thinking about the methods and materials that I will have to use when it comes time to mount and rig the cannon.    Once the bulwarks are in place on the hull the tumblehome is going to make rigging the cannon difficult.    Then there are the deck and hull plank details that have to be worked out. . . . etc. . . etc.   I decided that making a mock-up of a gun station would help me work out some of the kinks.
 
The first issue was how to cut the gunports through the bulwarks and create the rebate for the lid.   I wanted them all to be the same size and square.  The method that worked for me was to create a square tube of 1/32” wood glued at the corners.   Here you can see it slid through a hole cut in the bulwark.  With a small piece of bulwark like this, I could cut it on the band saw before attaching it to the base plate.  On the model I will have to pierce each gunport and use a coping saw to cut the square hole.
 

 
Here it is from the side.  You can see that it runs parallel to the deck, so the lintel and sill will be level.  With it in this position I marked out the line where the box and the outer bulwark face met.  The box was removed and cut along the line.
 

 
The cut face was sanded, and the box reinstalled in the hole, but slid in just short of the outer face of the hole.
 

 
In the closeup you can see the even and smooth rebate formed this way.  The back side was marked, the box removed and cut down, then reinstalled and glued. 
 

 
When the glue was dry the back side was sanded smooth with the inside of the bulwark.  The rough edges and gaps will be covered by the bulwark planking.  All the gunports  should be identical if I slice similar sections from the same tube.   
 

 
Construction went very quickly.  Too quickly.  I forgot to stop and take photos.  Here is the completed gun station.  It represents one of the midships cannon in the waist with the high bulwark and the gangway overhanging the gun. 
 

 
If you look at the bulwark, you will see that it has been raised about 1/8" from the first few photos.  It reminds me not to take measurements from the plans without checking them against the rest of the details that have to fit.  This would have been a disaster if it happened on the actual bulwark piece. 
 
The deck layout is taken from the plans, with the raised binding strake used by the French set just outside of the grating.   While doing this I discovered that the gratings that I made earlier will have to be modified.   The French did not use the high coamings which the English did, and which I built.  The QAR would have had gratings set into the deck, but crowned even more than the deck camber/round up.  I took an extra piece of grating and sanded it down at the sides and across the back until it fit the curved profile. 
 
The deck is laid in holly, with birch bung covers.  I know that there are good arguments to be made for making them pronounced, and just as many for making them invisible.  I chose to take a middle course and try to make them visible, but not distracting. 
 

 
Here is the cannon rigged with its breeching rope turned into rings in the bulwark.  The rope was laid up from DMC cotton line to a diameter of 0.6” (scale 6 inch rope).  It was stained and sealed with Minwax.  There is still some fuzz, but I am working on a few solutions. 
 

 
The gun tackle are hooked to eyebolts.  The blocks are 4mm singles from Warner Woods West (6” in scale).  The hooks are tied into their strops and the block closest to the bulwark has the running line tied into its becket.  The line is J.B. Coates “Dual Duty Plus” that measures out to 0.015” This is a little thin, but I prefer the look to that of a thicker line. 
 
I could not find acceptable photoetched hooks on the market, so I made them from 0.020” iron wire.   The sequence below shows how I use my orthodontic pliers to bend the wire around to meet itself, then the eye that was formed is bent back to center on the shaft.   To make an eyebolt it is clipped off at this stage.  To make a hook I continue the bend to stage 3.  Moving the pliers out just a bit the wire is bent back toward the eye, then clipped off, opening the hook. 
 

 
The smallest hook I can make this way is just under 5 mm (7” in scale).  This is a bit large, but acceptably small, and the 50 that I needed were done pretty quickly. 
 

 
The outer bulwark planking was cut from birch veneer with the edges colored with indelible marker.  I experimented with contact cement as the adhesive.  I painted a thinned layer on the bulwark substrate and let it dry.  The planks were painted  but installed when the glue was still a bit tacky.  This gave me quick adhesion but just a little ‘wiggle room’ before it set.   The bad news was that the contact cement dissolved the indelible ink and threatened to spread it to the surface of the planking.  I will change to a water based marker in the future. 
 
Treenails were drilled and installed, then the planking was stained.  I used Golden Oak, but did not thin it enough and I think the color is too dark.  Neither the treenails nor the moldings show up to good effect. 
 
The gunport lid was made up as usual from several layers of wood glued with crossed grain.  The hinges are blackened brass strip pegged with iron wire.  The strips were left long beyond the back edge of the lid and were ground down to square cross section.  These pins were inserted and glued into holes drilled into the plank just above the lintel of the gunport.  Hinge barrels were made from short sections of blackened brass rod.
 
Small eyebolts were made and fitted to the outer corners and a bridled lifting rope tied.  The lead is through a hole in the bulwark above the gunport and belays to a cleat above the gun.
 

 
Of course, Pirate Pete had to show up to inspect the work.  He seems to fit well into the scene. 
 



 
 
He even looks the right size for the gangway, although he can use a rope railing on the caprail.
 

 
Overall, I would say that the two days spent on the gun station were well worth it for the time that will be saved over the long run, and the problems that will be avoided.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

Hi all -
 
David, thanks for the link.  It was an interesting article and fills in some gaps in my knowledge of the history of the ship and Blackbeard.
 
Now it is time to turn to the armaments.  On any pirate ship model the cannon are going to be significant points of visual interest and the QAR is no different.  After Blackbeard’s capture of Le Concord, he took the armaments from his prior ship and added them to those already on his new flagship.  Contemporary accounts put the number of large cannon at 20, with an unknown number of additional smaller ones.  Archaeological evidence from the wreck site confirms this. 
 
Several six-pounder long guns have been recovered and conserved, as well as a few four-pounders, a one pounder and a swivel gun.  It was therefore decided to arm the QAR with 20 six-pounders on the gun deck, with four four-pounders on the quarterdeck and two one-pounders on the forecastle.  Ten swivel guns will be mounted on the rails along the quarterdeck and forecastle.
 

 
The cannon that have been examined turned out to be a mix of English, Swedish, and French manufacture, which is not surprising.  Blackbeard, like all pirates, would have obtained his armaments from whichever ships he had previously captured, which might themselves have had a mixture of cannon.  No carriages were recovered, but the decision was made to mount them on French style carriages since she was originally a French ship and possibly retained most of her larger cannon.  Here are drawings comparing the French and English styles.
 

 
As you can see, the basic differences are that 1) the French style has a solid base plate and bumper, which widens the footprint of the carriage a bit; and 2) the breaching rope runs through large holes in the cheeks rather than looping around the cascabel.   The rounded curve on the bottom of the English cheeks is not unique, and I have seen carriages with them on contemporary French models.
 
With so many cannon to build, I looked to the aftermarket to see if anyone had barrels that would scale out to the 6 ½ to 7 ½ foot length of the six-pounders that were recovered and still be historically accurate in shape and detail.  The length scaled out to between 2.16 and 2.5 inches.  I found that The Lumberyard (www.dlumberyard.com) had cast Brittania barrels that were just the right size.  They are listed as 32-pounders if you are working at 1:48, but the shape is correct for the smaller caliber at my larger scale.
 
I carefully examined enlarged photos of the barrels and was impressed with the detail and accuracy of the reinforcing bands, cascabel shape, and bore.  I ordered 40 of them, as well as 12 others for the smaller cannon.  They did not have acceptable barrels for the swivel guns, and I am still looking for them.
 
The Lumberyard also sells laser cut carriages to fit the barrels.  They were made in the English style, but I thought that I would try to modify them to the French style.  I knew that I could always scratch-build the carriages, but the pre-cut ones would save a lot of effort if they could be made accurate enough and of the right style.  Here is how it went:
 
This is how the barrels and the carriages came.  The carriages come four to a sheet, which worked out perfectly.  The barrels and carriages for the smaller guns are identical in everything but size.  A lot of thought and care went into designing the carriage pieces, including providing two different sizes of wheels/trucks.  A tip of the hat to Dave Stevens.
 

 
And here are the pieces for one cannon after being separated from the laser cut sheet.  They came out easily and a little help with a sharp blade was only needed once or twice for all the pieces.
 

 
The barrels are excellent castings with no flash and almost no evidence of the mold line.  But whatever blackening method was used did not ‘take’ on the metal.  It was uneven, crusty, and could be rubbed off with a finger.  A bit of work with a dry paper towel took the blackening off down to almost bare metal.
 

 
To re-blacken them, the contract specifications call for chemical blackening of all metals rather than paint.  I first tried a product called Blacken-It, which was a disaster.  The metal took on a grey, chalky surface, while an unidentified tan substance precipitated out of the solution.  I had much more success with Pewter Black.  I experimented and found that I had to use a fairly strong solution, much stronger than the corresponding solution of Brass Black that I use for brass.  The surface that was produced was more uniform, but some of the blackening could still be rubbed off if I put some effort into it.  To seal it several coats of clear matte finish were sprayed on and the end results were acceptable.
 
Here you can see the barrel at the top as it was received.  The next one down has all of the blackening removed with a powered toothbrush.  Below it is the barrel after the trunnions have been cut down and reblackened.  Finally, the finished barrel after clear coating.  Only the vent hole has to be drilled.
 

 
The carriage conversion started with making the base plates and bumpers.  The tapered base plate was cut on the table saw with the miter gauge set to 5 degrees.  The bumper was cut, attached with PVA glue, then crowned using a disc sander.
 

 
The cheek pieces were sanded smooth and the burn marks from the laser were sanded off.  Holes were drilled for the eyebolts and the breaching rope through the side of the cheek, and holes for the bolts holding the cheek pieces together were drilled down on two of the steps of the cheek.  A simple jig was fashioned that held the base plate up so the axle notches would be clear, and located the cheeks against the bumper.  The vertical cross piece at the front held everything square.  A clamp made from a bent hair clip held it all together as the glue dried.
 

 
Axles and wheels were next.  As they came out of the wood sheet, the axles were square.  They needed to be rounded to fit the holes in the trucks.  To do this I found a piece of thick walled brass tube with the correct inside diameter.  Four teeth were cut and filed into one end and a sleeve was put around it as a guide and depth stop.
 


 
This was chucked into the bench top drill press and the ends of the axles were fed into it from underneath.  There was surprisingly little resistance as it cut, and I was able to control the workpiece with just my hand.
 

 
It made short work of the job, and much neater than I could have done by hand.
 

 
The trucks from the laser cut sheet were modified to make them look as if they were made up of four half circles bolted together with six metal bolts.  The effect is subtle, but noticeable if not done.  Next to them are several of the eyebolts located in a store here in NYC.  The eye is 0.095” o.d., which scales up to 3 ½”, which is quite accurate.  I could have wished that the wire was a bit thicker, but the difference is hard to see.  At $2 per hundred it sure beats making them all by hand.
 

 
A test cannon was done to see that everything worked, and a detailed instruction sheet was written up, then all the carriage pieces were packed up and given into the hands of JerseyCityFrankie, who agreed to assemble all the carriages.  He did an excellent job, as you can see from some of his progress photos.
 



 
Frankie also shaped and installed the quoin wedges.  The handles are brass belaying pins treated with Brass Brown solution.  All that was left to do when I got the completed carriages back was to make and install the capsquares and their fittings. 
 

 
I started with a strip of 3/32” x 1/64” brass and developed a jig to shape it.  The strip is held between the guide strips and pushed up to meet the stop on the right.  The die has a short piece of steel rod set into it which matches the groove cut into the base piece and is the same diameter as the trunnions. 
 

 
The steel rod is placed over the groove.  With a few taps of a hammer the curve is bent into the brass.  The first few tries showed me that if the base piece remains flat the short end of the strip does not bend flat but springs back a bit.  To correct this the end of the plate was angled and some finishing strikes with the die held at an angle took care of the problem.
 

 
Two holes for the eyebolts were pre-drilled in the capsquare while it was still on the strip, then it was parted off.  You can see in the inset that the curve is not as rounded as I might have liked, but the difference is not noticeable in the finished piece.
 

 
The capsquares were chemically blackened and tack glued in position.  The pre-drilled holes were extended down into the wood of the cheeks.  Two U-bolts with one very short leg were bent and installed.  In the inset you can see that the one toward the rear of the carriage replicates the visible portion of the eyebolt that hinges the capsquare, while the other replicates the eyebolt for the pin that holds it down.
 

 
The final detail was the pin and chain for each capsquare.  Some very fine brass chain with 36 links per inch was blackened, and bits of thin wire inserted in links about half an inch apart.  The wire was bent back on itself and pinched together to form a cotter-pin shape.  One pin was left long and inserted into a hole just below and behind the trunnion, while the other was cut short and slipped into the eye of the forward bolt.  The gun is now ready to be mounted and rigged.
 

 
And here it is with my scale figure for comparison.  I think it came out quite well and will dress up the waist of the model nicely.
 

 
Actually, there were two types of carriage that were made.  On the finished model only the eight guns in the waist will be visible.  These are the only ones that needed to be fully detailed.  However, just to be safe I detailed the four cannon that might be partially visible under the overhanging quarterdeck and forecastle.  The remaining eight will only have the end of the barrel and the forward face of the carriage visible.  For these no bumper was installed and the capsquares were replaced with simple U bolts.  The trucks were replaced with wooden chocks that raise the cannon to the correct level and will provide enlarged glue surfaces when the cannon are installed.
 

 
So here is a complete set of all the six-pounder cannon for one of the models.    The remaining small cannon will join them shortly.
 

 
This was a longer entry than usual, so feel free to ask if I have not fully explained any of the materials or methods.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 
 
  
 
   
 
 
 
 
 

Hi all -
 
I am stumped on a fitting fixture that appears on the Budriot plans.  It is a wooden piece, about 6" x 10" in scale and about 4 feet long that sits on deck athwartships to the stern of the fore and main masts.  It has a series of sheaves along its length and is topped by a matching number of cleats.  It clearly takes the place of a pinrail to belay lines coming down from the top. 
 
Here is Budriot's plan, although he does not show the sheaves.  He calls it a "suite de taquets sur semelle" which Google and I translate (badly) as "group of cleats on deck."  Not very helpful. 
 

 
The problem is that the only source that I can find is the model of the Sans-Pareil (1857) in the Musee de la Marine.  It does not appear on any of the other models, nor on the Frolich or Delacroix models.  
 
Here are some photos taken from Budriot's book about the models in the museum. 
 




 
Has anyone seen these before?  I would like some additional authority before I add them to the model.
 
Thanks in advance
 
Dan

Good day to all -
 
This segment will be a bit of a detour from where I left the hull construction last time.  The sheer size of the model means that I have to work on it in the basement of the family’s weekend house near Albany, NY.  There is no way that I can fit it into the shipyard in the Brooklyn apartment, which is a converted walk-in closet.  I haven’t been up to the house in several weeks, so I am working on smaller pieces here in the city that can be added later.  The first of these are the ship’s boats.  As always, there are half a dozen good ways to get the job done.  Here is mine.  The recitation is quite long, so I have broken it up into two parts.  The first will cover the shaping and planking of the hull, and the second will finish with the fitting out of the interior.
 
The Mercure drawings that I am working from include plans and schematics for two boats, a large launch (boat 7) and a sleek pinnace (boat 6).   Here I will be building the launch.  The drawings had been sent to me as .tif files, so it was easy to drop them into Photoshop and start manipulating them.
 
 
 
First I used the rule stick in the hand of the little gnome dancing on the page to scale the drawing to the size of the model.  I cropped and copied the forward and aft station lines portions of the plans and moved them to a new blank image.  Identical square outlines were superimposed around the two drawings to give them the same registration planes and centerlines. 
 
Once I was happy that everything was square and aligned correctly they were copied repeatedly to fill a page sized image and printed out several times to get one image for each of the 21 stations shown on the profile and cross section plans.  These were cut apart and glued with spray mount to squares of 1/8” wood sheet.
 

 
The outline at each station was cut out with a notch for the keel and shoulders at the sheer.  The three in the upper right are standing up because they have already had spacers glued to their back sides like the one in the upper left.  These are used with the building board, which is marked out for the centerline and each numbered station.
 

 
The station formers are glued to the board and to each other one at a time with a top spacer used to keep them at the proper distance and an engineer’s square to see that they are perfectly vertical.  
 


 
While the glue was drying on the developing stack of formers the two strongbacks (stem-keel-sternpost) were cut out.  It is somewhat weaker to do it this way, as you end up with cross-grain on the stem and sternpost, but it is faster, and this boat is something of a test bed for techniques.  For the same reason, the wood used is almost exclusively basswood.  It is easy to work, glues well, and when stained correctly is almost impossible to distinguish from a close-grained hardwood. 
 
The portion of the plans showing the longitudinal cross section was mounted on an 1/8” wood sheet which was then glued to a second sheet, with the glue placed only where the wood would be chucked.  The outline of the strongback was cut out on the band saw, leaving a glued central piece to be cut last.  This yielded two identical pieces that came apart as soon as the last cut was completed. 
 



 
Here is the completed stack of formers on the building board with one of the strongbacks temporarily set up in the notch for the keel.  It goes without saying that once the stack was fully glued it was shaped and faired with sanding rods to get smooth curves from bow to stern.
The strongback is held vertically with small blocks at the bow and stern that sandwich the tops at the centerline.  Two transom pieces were taken from the plans, laid out and cut as before, and each was test fit into the notch cut for it at the base of the sternpost.  The location of the forward edge of the plank rabbet was determined and marked out on the strongback, then the small extensions that had been left above the stem and sternpost were trimmed until it snuggled down into the keel notch at the proper level. 
 

 
The strongback was removed and the rabbet was carved along the line with rotary bitts, then finished with files and rifflers.   The transom was planked on the outside and glued in place against the sternpost.
 


 
Now I fit the ribs to the station formers.  It was a happy fact that Budriot drew the boat with a rib at each station line and a station line at each rib.  To make room for them I had cut out the station formers a little inside the line, and the sanding and fairing had further reduced the breadth of the stack.  The ribs were fairly thin in any case, made from wood strips milled to 1mm x 2mm (about 1.5” x 3” in scale”).  These were soaked in water to soften, then bent around each former and wired in place.  No glue was used.
 

 
All of the ribs were wired in place except the aftmost one at Station 21.  Leaving it off gave me a little more flexibility in fairing the planks to the transom.  The strongback was replaced in the keel notch of the formers and the initial two planks were shaped.   
 
The first was the sheer strake.  From the plans it measured out to exactly ¼” in width and was left full width its entire length.  A strip of basswood that width and 1/16” thick was soaked for a few minutes, then shaped first at the bow, where the tip was cut and angled to fit into the rabbet.  The forward few inches were steam bent using an Amati plank bender (the one that looks like a soldering iron with a nautiloid shaped head).  It is 25 years old and still works a treat.  Using the shoulders cut into the formers at the sheer the plank was edge bent to match the curve before being clamped and glued to each rib and the transom.
 
The garboard strake against the keel was similarly fitted and glued.  However, when I tried to impose the required twists into a basswood plank it repeatedly splintered.  I therefore used pau marfim, a California hardwood.  It is also ¼” wide for most of its length but flares to about twice that at the sternpost.  To accommodate this, a tapered plank was pieced in from Station 15 to the sternpost.  When I was happy with the look of the shape it was clamped and glued to the ribs.  Here is what they looked like with most of the clamps removed.
 



 
A word here about stains and glues.  Before any piece was installed it was given a staining with a mixture of ½  clear Minwax wood stain which they call Natural, ¼ Early American and ¼ Cherry.  I find this combination the best to reduce any splotchiness in the basswood and makes basswood resemble boxwood or one of the lighter cherry varieties, a look that I like a lot.  However, the stain is a bit oily, so the wood has to be well wiped and has to dry for a while before normal PVA glues will hold well. 
 
As for glue, I use a pH neutral white glue made by Lineco which I used to get from an art conservation supply house.  It sets up fast and holds well, yet is still flexible for an extended time, which will come in handy later.  Now I get it through Amazon where it is competitively priced with carpenters’ wood glues.
 
This process was repeated for the second sheer plank and the first broad strake against the garboard, but these had to be tapered to fit at the bow.  I knew from test fittings with strips of paper that there was almost exactly half the space between the garboard and sheer strake at the bow than there was between these planks amidships.  Therefore the next two planks were tapered for their forward three inches to that dimension.  Holding the plank to the formers and letting it find its own best fit, it was evident that the tapering on the second sheer strake should come off the edge that mated with the sheer strake, while the broad strake should taper on the garboard side. 
 
After the bulk of the wood was removed the edge was sanded to a fair curve.  This spiling was all done by eye, with the curve examined from every angle and refined as needed on this and every successive plank.
 
Once acceptably shaped the planks were stained, then caulking was indicated by coloring the uncut edge of the plank with an indelible black marker.  The planks were bent to final shape, fitted, glued and clamped in place.
 

 
With two strakes at the keel and two at the sheer, the cage of ribs had a good deal of strength and rigidity.  Now all of the wires were pulled out and the developing hull was removed from the formers.  I must have done a clean job with the glue because I didn’t have to pry it loose at any point.
 

 
Subsequent strakes were processed in a similar way.  For clamps I used bulldog clips that had a handle piece from a second clip fitted into the top of the clip.  A modified clip was used on every other former to hold the plank to the ribs as the glue dried. 
 

 
Here is what the hull looked like with 8 of the 11 strakes in place.  At this point the remaining space was divided into thirds as you can see from the pencil marks on the ribs.  This would be filled with two standard width planks and one custom fit ‘shutter plank’ that closed in the hull.
 

 
Here is one completed side.  The shutter plank location was selected to lie just under the curve of the chine of the hull, making it less visible than any other spot.  It is the fourth from the keel.  It is slightly wider than the other planks and flares at the stern to fill the larger space.
 

 
While it was on the formers the location of each rib was penciled onto the planks in preparation for the ‘nails’ holding the planks to the ribs.
 

 
Once the other side was closed up the hull was removed from the formers.  I think the method worked quite well and resulted in a hull that is strong, symmetric, and gives a convincing appearance of an actual boat structure.  The white plastic figure in the corner is useful to judge scale appearance and will appear again.
 

 
Spiling the planking by eye in this way is an acquired skill, but not difficult if each plank is critically examined and adjusted as needed.  The final hull has a nice run of planking that tapers smoothly to the stem and matches, port to starboard, and even has the little variations in width that a real boat does.
 


 
In the next installment I use the penciled lines to drill the nail holes for the more than 1100 fasteners used for the hull planks.  Then I fit out the interior and finish the boat.
 
As always, critical review by the eyes of my peers is requested.  This is even more so in this case since the boat is the first generation attempt and, despite the work and time invested, may not make the final cut.
 
Looking forward to hearing from all.
 
Dan
 

Hello to all -
 
Those of you who followed my building of the Swan 42 racing yacht may experience some temporal whiplash as the Wayback Machine moves the shipyard some 300 years into the past.  Even though the scale will be about the same, the materials, methods, and style will have little or nothing in common with the last project.   We leave the clean lines and millimeter accuracy of a rich man's toy for the rough outlines and incomplete draughts of a pre-Colonial pirate ship.
 
Queen Anne's Revenge was the flagship of the notorious pirate Edward Thatch (incorrectly called Teach), known as Blackbeard.  In barely more than a year and a half, from the summer of 1717 to November 22, 1818, he and two other pirate leaders put together a large fleet that took numerous merchant ships, looting them and holding any worthwhile captives for ransom while taking any willing sailors into his piratical crew.  He was hardly the most notorious or bloodthirsty pirate, but he captured the popular imagination with his large fierce black beard and his habit of placing lit rope matches for his weapons into his hair during a battle.
 

 
The origins of the ship herself are not definitively known.  It is thought that she was built in about 1710 as a small frigate of about 300 tons known as La Concorde, with her first cruise as a French privateer during Queen Anne's War in 1711.  When the war ended in 1713 with the Treaty of Utrecht her owners sent her into the slave trade.  She made two profitable cruises between 1713 and 1717, taking slaves from West Africa to the French colonies in the Carribean and capturing prizes on the return leg back to France.  On November 28, 1717, during her third slaving cruise, she fell afoul of Blackbeard with two armed sloops.  Her crew was sick and many of the cannon had been removed to make more room for slaves so she was captured easily.  Below is a drawing of a similar light frigate from the early 1700s.
 

 
After renaming her Queen Anne's Revenge and adding significantly more cannon, she became Blackbeard's flagship and was used to capture numerous ships and even to blockade the port of Charleston for a week.  Turning north from there  in company with several smaller pirate ships on June 10, 1718 they tried to enter a shallow anchorage known as Topsail Inlet (or Old Topsail Inlet), now called Beaufort Inlet in North Carolina.  Although several other ships entered safely, the larger Queen Anne's Revenge grounded on the sand bar at the entrance, as did another ship that came to her aid.  After removing the valuables she was abandoned and left to the cruel mercies of the sea.  Blackbeard himself lasted barely another six months until his death in November of 1718 during a battle with the Royal Navy. 
 
The ship was rediscovered in 1996 and is now being excavated underwater in project managed by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Affairs and the North Carolina Maritime Museum, part of East Carolina University.  Numerous artifacts, including several cannon, coins, navigational equipment, and hundreds of everyday items have been recovered and are being conserved.  You can see photographs of the artifacts, view interactive maps of the ship's history and the wreck site, and read the archaeologists' and researchers' detailed reports if you go to the Queen Anne's Revenge website at http://www.qaronline.org/Home.aspx   It is a little gem of a site and well worth looking into.
 
I have been asked to build two display models of the QAR for the Maritime Museum.  They will be at the large scale of 1:36, yielding a model of some 48" LOA from the tip of the jib boom to the ensign staff at the stern.  It will rise some 44" from the keel to the main truck with a main yard of some 22" with stunsail booms rigged but not extended.   The hull is to be solid below the gun deck but open and fully detailed above.   She is to have a full suit of sails with all sail handling lines, although several will be furled so the deck can be more easily viewed.
 
There are no plans or illustrations of the ship, so her apearance is a bit conjectural.  As a basis for the model I have been given two sets of plans.  The first is a simple, one-page rendering of the lines and profile of a similar small French frigate which was captured by HMS Advice and which is known therefore as Advice Prize.
 

 
I am also working from a set of drawings done by Jean Budriot of yet another light French frigate of the period known as Le Mercure.   He has written a monograph that is illustrated with numerous detailed drawings of all of the bits and pieces of the ship including several profiles, cross-sections and longitudinal sections, and sail and rigging plans.  However, as is his custom, there is no station lines plan from which to derive the hull shape.
 

 
These two sets of plans have to be reconciled, not only with each other, but with the known historic facts.  For example, it was reported in contemporary accounts and court-martial testimony that the Queen Anne's Revenge had 20 large cannon on board when she went down.  Le Mercure is pierced for 10 guns on each side, but the Advice Prize has only 9.  The Mercure drawings have the channels for the fore and main shrouds set below the gunports, while the Advice Prize has them above.  Le Mercure is shown with a square, open beakhead bulkhead, while the plans for the Advice Prize shows a closed in forecastle.  At the stern Le Mercure has a large quarter gallery, rather than the small quarter badge of the Advice Prize.  But that quarter badge is set very high, with an indication that the Advice Prize had a poop deck above the quarterdeck.  These and many other details, large and small, will have to be reconciled as construction continues.
 
To begin with, a tenth gunport was added to the Advice Prize and their spacing was adjusted accordingly.  The quarter badge was lowered and it is this resulting profile that will be used to build the models.
 

 
On this plan you can see a horizontal red line.  This is my line of demarcation between the solid hull below and the open gundeck above.  It is set at the level of the gundeck for the forward four ports.  A tapered piece will be added at the rear half of the ship to account for the sheer rise of the gundeck towards the stern.  But this line is also used as my registration plane for setting up the templates for the hull shape at the various stations shown on the plans. 
 
As I was working out the hull construction the first of what will surely be many problems arose.  In the scale that is required, the maximum breadth of the model works out to just over 9 inches and the station lines work out to, mostly, 3 inches separation.  To work from the centerline I would need wood of at least 4.5 inches wide and 3 inches thick.  However, wood of that size is not easily or inexpensively acquired.  Instead, I found basswood planks 4 inches wide and up to 2 inches thick.  I decided therefore to piece together the hull. 
 
As you can see in the wood blocking plan below, I started with a vertical central piece 3/8" thick to match the width of the keel.  This was sandwiched on each side by a vertical lift 1/2 inch thick, then by the side pieces whch would be cut to the profiles of the appropriate station lines from the plans.
 

 
As usual with vertical station line lifts, they were cut to the profile of the appropriate station line.  For each three inch station segment a two inch lift and a one inch lift were used.  I also decided that the hull should be partially hollow, not only to reduce weight, but to give the stresses somewhere to go other than outward when the wood swelled with changing humidity.  My solution was to take each lift and cut out the center, leaving a crescent of wood about 1 inch thick.  Construction began with the gunport deck piece cut to shape and the three vertical central pieces glued to it using carpenters' squares for alignment.  Then the station line lift crescents were glued in place and secured with dowels.  Here you can see the first three segments glued and pinned, with the fourth made ready for installation.
 


 
This was continued from the center out to the bow and stern, with the final lifts left solid and clamped to the growing hull block.  The completed hull block was left to dry for a week before the bamboo dowels were trimmed off.
 


 
Now the carving and shaping had to begin to reduce the stepped shape of the lifts.  The model is so large that the usual woodworking tools were inadequate in any reasonable time frame.  I therefore purchased an angle grinder and set it up with coarse 50 grit sanding discs.  This was followed by a random orbit sander, also with coarse grit paper.
 

 
As you can imagine, this makes a hellish racket and leaves a hellish mess,  Eye, ear and respiration protection are a must, and if you are not going to do all of it outside, you need three other things - an empty room in the basement; a big shop vacuum; and most importantly, an understanding wife.  I am glad to say that I have the first two and am blessed with the third.
 

 
In this photo you can see how far the shaping has progressed.  From here there still has to be a lot of hand work that is checked and rechecked as usual with station line templates.  The next segment will take us through that process.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

Hi all -
 
Yes, an interesting project that is open to some speculation.  Although there is no definitive information on the ship's appearance, we can reason backward from what is known. 
 
A researcher on the project has combed through the French archives and in his 159 page report he convincingly demonstrates that she was built as La Concorde for a private commercial firm, rather than for the French navy.  She is described as being one of the light frigates of 250 to 300 tons, which fits well with other such ships being built for the navy, so her design was probably quite similar.  Budriot, in his major work, "The History of the French Frigate, 1650-1850" has a short chapter on these light frigates with illustrations of several of the naval frigates as well as lines drawings and artistic illustrations such as the one that I included.  There is even a lengthy written description of a "Light frigate armed with 20 6-pounders" which is exactly what the Queen Anne's Revenge was.  I am still working through the dense prose to glean bits of useful information.
 
However, she was not built for the navy, but for a private firm.  As such, she would not have had the elaborate carvings, paint and decorations that a national warship would have carried and which Budriot puts on Le Mercure..  Even if there were originally some touches of color, by the time she finished a privateering cruise and two slaving trips some seven years later I do not believe that any would have remained. 
 
We are on surer ground with the rig.  Masts and spars were pretty well standardized by 1710 for the size of the ship.  Budriot provides a detailed drawing of all of the sticks and fittings in the Mercure drawings, which will be checked against Lees, Petrejus and other writers.  But that is for later - much later.
 
Till then, be well.
 
Dan

Hi Mark = 
 
Your model is coming along very nicely.
Welcome now to the wonderful world of carving.  It really is wonderful, despite a pretty steep learning curve.
As others have said, the more you do, the better you will get at it.
Having worked my way up the curve, I have some thoughts and a tip that works for me.
 
First, there are two basic methods for miniature carving - chip, or knife carving and rotary carving.
In the first, the unwanted material is removed with a blade or chisel.  In the other, by burrs and bitts in a Dremel or similar.
To see an excellent use of the first method, check out Hubac's Historian's build of the Soleil Royale. 
Although he is carving styrene, the principles are the same.
To see what rotary carving is about, look at my build of the Queen Anne's Revenge [just click on it below in my profile]
The carving of the figurehead starts on page 2
I do 95% of my carving with rotary tools and only the last little bits with a knife to get a crisp edge where I need it.
It is just a process of removing everything that does not look like the piece that you want.
 
As for the tip -
When you begin carving the flags and lances, mount the carving blank to a larger disc of scrap wood.
Use cyano or rubber cement, or another solvent based adhesive.
The round shape will let you easily turn it so you can attack the work from all angles.
The backing will support the thin shafts of the lances and other delicate details.
When you are done soak the entire piece in acetone or denatured alcohol until the carving comes free without force.
 
I hope that this helps a bit.
Keep up the excellent work.
 
Dan
 

Hi Chuck - 
 
Beautiful craftsmanship, as always.  All the joints are so clean and tight, which is really impressive.
Though I do not plan to build a kit, I have read pretty much every instruction manual, article and book, and wrote a few with Jim Roberts.
I have to say that your explanations and instructions are up there with the best.  They are as clean and tight as your woodwork.
Following along in my head I take it a sentence or two at a time and I can actually see the model rising from the building board.
Every one building the model is extremely lucky to have you take them through a master class in the arts of the shipwright.
 
Two small suggestions, if I may - - 
     First, it might be a bit easier for the modelers if you gave them the knee of the cathead along with cathead.  The slant of its top will establish the angle of the cathead relative to the hull.  This then determines the way the bottom of the notch rises from inboard to outboard.
     Second, you suggest a really sharp chisel for the cuts.  I think many of your followers would appreciate a quick lesson in sharpening chisels.  I don't know, myself, I just pull out a fresh hobby blade.  It is a skill that I should add to my toolbox.
 
Keep on with the good work.
Stay safe and well
 
Dan
 
 

Hi Mark - 
 
So glad you are recovering from the aftereffects of your stroke.  I know that it will take time, but mental exercises like model building can make the process as speedy and complete as possible.  You have best wishes from me and, I am sure, the entire ModelShipWorld community.
 
When you have a moment, I would love to see your helicopter.
 
Be well
 
Dan

From a life standpoint, my sister and I have made tremendous strides in sorting out our father’s affairs, and our current biggest hurdle is getting approval from his long-term care insurer for assisted living.  Steadily, we are getting there, and I appreciate those who have asked, just as I appreciate everyone who comes to visit me here.
 
I have managed to sneak-in a few hours, here and there, and I have completed all of the port side buttressing knees of the channels, and I got everything nicely re-painted and pretty.  In general, lowering the channels pretty dramatically changes the whole aspect of the model, and the difference is pleasing to me:
 

 

 

 
The mizzen channel knees were challenging to cope over mouldings and around the fleurs, but I am happy to have lowered them to here, where there is less interference with the frieze:
 

 
I am using this portrait of the DR, circa 1680, as justification for this placement:
 

 
I continue to comb through the archives, but I have yet to find anything vividly descriptive about the ship’s pre-refit external appearance.  Despite the beautifully florid cursive, I’ve come to realize the hard truth that the letter writers and record keepers of 17th C. France were basically clerks.  Mostly their correspondence has to do with SR’s comings and goings; armaments and dis-armements;  payments made/owed to painters and sculptors; cost estimates relating to her refit, etc.  It is all fascinating, and it will all get its due mention in my book, but it does not help me paint the picture of the ship.
 
Where are the artists sharing their wonderfully descriptive observations, when you need them?!
 
What I’m hoping to find is something along the lines of this:
 

 
”The morning fires shone brightly upon the gilded ornaments of Soleil Royal and her heights rose up and became one with the azure sky.  The warrior of the Americas clung resolutely to the port side, while that of Africa peered off in the middle-distance - daring his lesser adversaries to emerge from the morning mist.  Presiding above, with shimmering rays of gold and silver gilt bursting past his golden chariot is the Sun King, himself…”
 
And, so forth.  It must be out there, somewhere, right?
 
Anyway, I can now get busy with fitting and prepping the starboard upper bulwark for paint.  I can also go ahead and design my stove - that will make a nice little side project.  Before long, I can design and make the next tier of stern lights, which will enable me to finish off the wrapping stern walk.
 
As always, thank you for your likes, comments and for looking-in.  More to come!

Good point.  I had not measured the drawing.
I think your decision is a good one.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

Good point.  I had not measured the drawing.
I think your decision is a good one.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

Good point.  I had not measured the drawing.
I think your decision is a good one.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

Good point.  I had not measured the drawing.
I think your decision is a good one.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

Hi Greg - 
 
The new tops look good, as do all your masts and spars.  They should compliment your hull and fittings very nicely.
 
As for the tops as drawn, I do not know of a contemporary model with such tops, but Captain Bligh's notes on the conversion of the Bethia to the HMS Bounty indicates that he had her fitted with 'gratten' tops, which I took to mean 'gratings'.  I suppose that this was to readily shed water in the rainy South Pacific where he was headed.  I have seen some modern models with such tops, and some look quite nice.
 
As the man said, "You pays yer money and you makes yer choice. . ."
 
Stay safe and well.
 
Dan

Thank you Druxey / Michael. Also thanks to everyone for the likes.
 
I have been bitting around recently, Doing some of the mini jobs I missed out on the journey so far.
 
On the bulwarks 12 belaying pins are mounted, I toyed with the ideal of ignoring them but in the end I couldn't.
 

 

 

 
They are not terribly obvious and I guess most casual observers will miss them.
 
I had also missed a number of eyebolts on the jib mountings (annoying to make when setting up to do just a few).
 

 

 
I then moved on to stepping the masts - always a bit tricky to get the verticality and rake spot on.
 
Before installing the deck I had glued an extension to the keel to create a "tenon" to accept the mast foot. I had intended slotting the bottom of the mast but in the end went for a more sophisticated solution.
 
I turned a piece of dowel to fit the hole in the deck and into the end of this machined an oversized slot to fit over the tenon. I drilled an axial hole through the dowel and into this fixed a .312" brass rod of some 15 inch long. I then levelled the hull and set up the laser level to get the vertical. I then shimmed the slot with offcuts until I got the athwartship verticality correct. This achieved I marked the rake on the workshop wall and sighted against this line to set the rake angle. Adjusting the rake was simple as the slot was able to slide on the tenon. I applied wood glue to the slot and this gave me plenty of time to tune the rake angle.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
The whole exercise was then repeated for the second mast.

Good point.  I had not measured the drawing.
I think your decision is a good one.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

A quick update. I solved the "U" bracket attachment problem with some small split pins that i had in my bits box.
They are made from .040" x .020" rectangular strip.
 

 
 
I inserted the "U" bracket into the eye of the pin and then filed off the corners of the legs so they would fit in the .040" bore of the turnbuckle. I glued the legs into the bore and it is now much stronger.
 
My wife finished the netting some months ago, now i just need to attach it. But not until the model is complete enough to move out of the workshop.
 

 

 
 

Hi Greg - 
 
The new tops look good, as do all your masts and spars.  They should compliment your hull and fittings very nicely.
 
As for the tops as drawn, I do not know of a contemporary model with such tops, but Captain Bligh's notes on the conversion of the Bethia to the HMS Bounty indicates that he had her fitted with 'gratten' tops, which I took to mean 'gratings'.  I suppose that this was to readily shed water in the rainy South Pacific where he was headed.  I have seen some modern models with such tops, and some look quite nice.
 
As the man said, "You pays yer money and you makes yer choice. . ."
 
Stay safe and well.
 
Dan

Hi Greg - 
 
The new tops look good, as do all your masts and spars.  They should compliment your hull and fittings very nicely.
 
As for the tops as drawn, I do not know of a contemporary model with such tops, but Captain Bligh's notes on the conversion of the Bethia to the HMS Bounty indicates that he had her fitted with 'gratten' tops, which I took to mean 'gratings'.  I suppose that this was to readily shed water in the rainy South Pacific where he was headed.  I have seen some modern models with such tops, and some look quite nice.
 
As the man said, "You pays yer money and you makes yer choice. . ."
 
Stay safe and well.
 
Dan

Hi Greg - 
 
The new tops look good, as do all your masts and spars.  They should compliment your hull and fittings very nicely.
 
As for the tops as drawn, I do not know of a contemporary model with such tops, but Captain Bligh's notes on the conversion of the Bethia to the HMS Bounty indicates that he had her fitted with 'gratten' tops, which I took to mean 'gratings'.  I suppose that this was to readily shed water in the rainy South Pacific where he was headed.  I have seen some modern models with such tops, and some look quite nice.
 
As the man said, "You pays yer money and you makes yer choice. . ."
 
Stay safe and well.
 
Dan

Garnet tackle - Palan d'etai
The garnet tackle were generally used for loading goods, cannons and for lowering and hoisting boats.
With regard to the execution of the stage tack, there are differences between the graphic representation of J. Boudriot in the monograph and the original model in the Paris Museum compared to the model of La Créole.
 
Source: Monograph La Creole by J. Boudriot pp. 125 and 126
 
 
Source: Monograph La Creole by J. Boudriot p. 101, photo detail of the original model

The execution of the garnet tackle documented in the Atlas du Génie maritime corresponds to the representation on the Paris model. Accordingly, I also do this on my La Créole model.
 
Source: Atlas du Génie maritime, annexe no.1, pl. 50

I was able to identify another garnet tackle on the photo of the original model. I will also represent this accordingly on my model.
I started the preparations for the appropriate arrangements of these rigging details with the production of the double and single blocks. A total of 6 double and 4 single blocks are to be produced. I determined the block size by scaling the drawings from the atlas in comparison with the block list from the monograph (dependency on the rope diameter), which ultimately fitted pretty well. Thus, the double blocks have a length of around 6.8 mm and the single blocks have a length of around 5.2 mm. The blocks were made in the manner that has meanwhile been tried and tested for me.
In this context I would like to emphasize that, from my point of view, it makes no sense to prepare the blocks in their entirety in advance. That would be several hundred blocks for this corvette. In the meantime I have laboriously learned that all these blocks have the most varied of sizes and shapes, depending on the purpose. There are also many differences in terms of their fittings and fastening. That's why I manufacture the blocks individually based on the respective detail section. Due to the complexity of rigging, any other approach does not seem expedient to me, unless one simplifies and differentiates less, which of course is at the expense of the level of detail. Ultimately, everyone has to decide for themselves.
 
 

 
As can be seen on the following drawing from the Atlas du Génie maritime, the French used heavy garnet tackle blocks with so-called swivel hooks (croc à émerillon).
 

Source: Atlas du Génie maritime, annexe no.1, pl. 2

Below is a picture collage for making the swivel hooks.

 
The majority of the required blocks, thimbles and hooks for the arrangements of the garnet tackle were made as far as can be seen in the next picture.

 
The manufactured brass parts are of course burnished to give them an iron-like appearance.
The next step is to make the garnet tackle. For this I still have to make the ropes in the appropriate strengths and serve. The necessary block strops must also be made.

Sequel follows …

NO CHAR FOR YOU!!!!

Seriously though....knowing that some of you are now referring to me as the "Laser char nazi".   There is a very valid reason.  But its not all bad.  There are times when removing the char isnt as necessary.  BUT...I cant understand why it is left on items to remain bright...or painted red which shows.  More on this later.  LOL
 
Time for the Fcastle rail and timberheads.
 
There are twelve timberheads per side.  Thats quite a few.  And then let us not forget the many along the qdeck.   These have been laser cut for you and yes there is a lot of char.   Now I know that some of you will start to see these wonderful details being added which make the whole project special.  And the more details like this the easier it is to lose your will to slow it down and you you start cutting corners.  Because lets face it, getting these details on the model makes a huge difference and you want to see them on the model as quickly as possible.  I suffer the same affliction, trust me.
 
BUT...lucky for us, we do not have to go crazy here removing the char from these timberheads which are quite small, with lots of inside corners for the char to hide.  You will still need to give them a good cleaning to smooth out the surface for painting.  I use sanding sticks and 420 grit sandpaper.  The surface must be prepared but dont try and remove it all.  You will distort the shape and also make the timberheads too small to fit snug in each hole of the rail.  You can see how clean I made those timberheads.  They are still pretty clean with just a light swipe of the sandpaper.  
 

So you will save some time here which is good news because....
 
Because, I strongly urge you not to cut corners on the next step.   You should certainly take the time to shape the timberheads on all four sides.  Many of you will be tempted to just use them as is.  That might be quick…but it would be a mistake.
 
The reason why this is so important is because they will appear much too heavy otherwise.  Too many kits have ridiculously heavy and thick timberheads.  It looks too kit-like.  By chamfering all four sides at the top of the timberheads they will appear slimmed down and in scale.  In addition,  the angled front and back sides… You will need to slice down towards a "stop cut" to create the proper shape.  See the photo above.  This will make a huuuuge difference. So yes its ok to cut corners on the char here.  But please do shape each timberhead carefully.  
 
I also sanded the rail itself smooth and softened the four corners along its length.  As I finished each
timberhead, I slid them from the bottom into position along the rail.  I have created a small "stop" ledge on one side of each timberhead.  If you didnt over sand them and remove this detail, it will keep the rail level and The rookie at the same height across all of the timberheads.  Hope that makes sense. In addition,  this “stop ledge” detail should always face forward when you slide the timberheads onto the rail.  This is important.
 
When all the timberheads are cleaned and shaped, test the rail in position.  The laser cut tenons on the bottom of each timberhead are not as wide as the holes in the caprail.  So you should have wiggle room to adjust the timberheads and rail.  Dont glue the timberheads into the rail yet.  And dont glue the rail onto the model.   While test-fitting in position, you need to add the fancy end piece.   See below.  Just glue it onto the end of the rail and let dry.
 
When dry, remove the entire rail from the model.  Remove all the timberheads from the rail.  I numbered the timberheads but that probably isnt necessary.  Then do your best to fill the seam between that fancy end piece and sand it so you can not see any trace of the seam before painting the rail black.

Here is a picture of the forward end being tested below. Everything fits great.   Nothing is glued together yet.  Once that seam is acceptable to me, I will paint all of the timberheads black individually and also the rail.  Then I will reassemble it for the last time and glue it on the model.  This will take some considerable time....then I have to do it all over again on the starboard side.
 
Any questions???